PSNERP began in 2001 as a General Investigation (GI) study partnership between the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with an express purpose to:

Evaluate significant ecosystem degradation in the Puget Sound Basin;

Formulate, evaluate, and screen potential solutions to these problems;

Recommend a series of actions and projects that have a federal interest and are supported by a local entity willing to provide the necessary items of local cooperation.

Once recommendations have been made, they will be included in a report to Congress requesting authorization to implement the recommendations.

PSNERP teams initially worked to gather the data necessary to develop the science to support the study. By 2009, study and analysis of the Puget Sound nearshore was largely complete. Using the results of the technical information and analyses, PSNERP can identify locations within Puget Sound as good places to do process-based nearshore restoration work.